Class LH had the challenge to establish which material would make the best waterproof shelter for Blip and Blop who are coming to visit us from planet Zog.
We discussed a variety of materials that we would use for our own shelters to keep us dry and shared ideas about the properties and their uses such as wood, plastic, metal, glass, stone, brick etc. We understood why most houses are built from brick to keep us dry and had glass windows to keep the rain out but they were transparent so we could see in and out of the windows.
The school has been lucky enough to be given some resources from the West Suffolk College whereby we could use a different variety of materials namely; newspaper, sugar cubes, plastic straws, spaghetti and cotton wool.
One group experimenting with the sugar cubes to see if Blip and Blop would get wet. They didn't get very wet at all but we had a great discussion about the amount of water that the sugar cube absorbed and that actually in the long run, they wouldn't be any use.
Experimenting with newspaper which was not very waterproof. Blip and Blop would have been very wet!
Carefully using the spaghetti to create the roof. This worked quite well but then it did get soggy.
The plastic straws were one of the best although the groups had to work together to create a barrier of the straws so avoid the water seeping through.
Using the cotton wool, the groups realised that the water drained through almost straight away.
In conclusion, the plastic straws were the most suitable but we all understood that they would have to be held together very tightly. The sugar cube was at first the one that most groups found didn't let much water through to Blip and Blop but once the cube had absorbed the water, it very quickly became obvious that this was not a good material to use for their long term shelter.
